The National Wildlife Federation recently filed three suits seeking to reform Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) procedures for administering the federal-aid highway program. Readers of ELR will recall that last month's issue included a Comment regarding the partial publication of FHwA procedures. That Comment in turn relied upon an earlier ELR article co-authored by Robert Kennan, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, which criticized the FHwA for failing to give its procedures adequate circulation.¹

The first lawsuit is directed at FHwA's unwillingness to make a firm commitment to publish those of its procedures that fit the definition of "rules" under the Administrative Procedure Act. The second suit challenges the provision in the new Part 790.9(f) of the Code of Federal Regulations that amends previous procedures so as to allow for possible right-of-way acquisition before a corridor hearing on the location of a highway.² The third suit asks that FHwA policy exempting certain projects that received design approval before February 1, 1971, from environmental impact statement requirements be judged in violation of NEPA.